Hebcules mccobd



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HEROULES MOOORD, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

BANJO.

SPEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 279,172, dated June 12,` 1883.

Application filed August 28, 1 882. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERoULEs MCCORD, of St. Louis, Missouri, have made a new and useful Improvement in Banj os, of which the fol- 5 lowing is a full, clear, and eXact description, reference being had to the anneXed drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 .is a view in perspective of a banjo having the improvement; Fig. 2, a detail upon an enlarged scale, being a section taken through the shell of the banj o, and showing the projection; and Fig. 3 a detail upon 'an enlarged scale, being a Vertical section taken through the banjo-head.' v The same letters denote the same parts.

The present invention is an improvement in banjos rounded at the back of the head. A banjo of the kind under consideration is liable, in use, to slip in the lap of the operator. To provide means for preventing this is the aim of this improvement, which consists in pro- Viding the banjo at the back of the head with a projection, which, When the instrument is being used, comes against the lap'of the operator, serving thereby to hold the instrument in place.

The preferable mode of carryng out the improvement is shown in the drawings,where A represents abanjo of the class referred to, the head B being'rounded at the corner b.

Crepresents a proj ection standing out from the head B. The projection is preferably in the form of a Wire rod starting, out from the shell b'-say at the point c-and in the direction substantially as indicated in Figs. 1, 2, 3, thence extending at c'parallel with the shell, and thence at 02 connecting 4with the shell. Such a form of projection is desirable in that it readily finds a hold in the operator7s lap. I do not, however, wish to be limited to any 40 special form of projection, nor to the precise point here shown of the head from which the projection extends.

1 do not claim in this case the combination, inabanjo, of the upper rounded edge with the rounded bottom, as these features arev shown in another application for a patent which I have filed.

I am aware that a chili-rest has been applied to the end of a Violin-body, and that a breast-support has also been used on a Violinbody, and I do not claim either.

I c1aim- A banj o, the back of which is rounded, and having a projection eXtending from the back, for the purpose described.

HEROULES MCCORD.

Witnesses:

O. D. MooDY, CHARLES PIoKLEs' 

